Alice Waters owned a gourmet restaurant in Berkeley, California. In 1995, she and the principal of the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley transformed the school's run down playground into an organic garden.
Soon after, student cooks were using the produce from the garden in the cafeteria kitchen, and before long, this school activity provided 900 students with a daily meal.
Alice Waters said, "Kids have to be taught that fresh nourishing food is their birthright, and wholesome, honest food should be an entitlement for everyone."
Alice had a passion for locally grown, organic produce and as a restaurant owner was one of the first champions of using fresh, regional fruits and vegetables from farmers markets.
She could easily have been content with being a successful business woman, as her restaurant was every gourmet's favorite destination in Berkeley, but she had a passion to do more.
Her work with children allowed student gardeners to tend a wide range of vegetables and flowers in their one acre outdoor classroom. Alice's "Edible Schoolyard," as the project was affectionately called, ultimately changed many lives in significant ways. So Alice certainly deserves to be remembered.
